HOUSTON—The field of immunology is
getting another boost
with the signing of a new research collaboration and license agreement between
the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The two organizations will be working to develop therapeutic antibodies
that
can engender an immune system response against cancer.

Per the agreement, MD Anderson will
grant GSK exclusive
worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the antibodies, which were
discovered by Yong-Jun Liu, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues
when he was professor
and chair of MD Anderson's Department of Immunology. Through its Institute for
Applied Cancer Sciences (ICAS), MD Anderson will collaborate with GSK to
conduct the preclinical research on the
antibodies. MD Anderson will receive an
upfront license payment as well as funding for IACS research collaboration
activities, and will be eligible for
development, regulatory and commercial
milestone payments as well as royalties from commercial sales of any products
that result from the agreement.
The deal has a potential total deal value of
more than $335 million.

"This agreement is not only
a tribute to the ability of
MD Anderson scientists to discover new targets and potential therapies against
those targets for cancer patients, it's
also a testament to the vision shared
by GSK and MD Anderson that successful clinical development of oncology drugs
requires seamless integration of
drug development expertise and deep biological
knowledge," IACS Director Giulio Draetta, M.D., Ph.D., said in a press
release. "The IACS was formed
to enable precisely such integration to expedite
the accurate translation of great science into drugs."

Draetta says that when they started looking at projects
within MD Anderson's annals that would be worth moving toward commercialization
and
started looking at industry partnerships, the OX40 partnership emerged as
one that was very interesting and also one that attracted interest within the
industry. Finding a partner that they could work well with and being able to
fully utilize the knowledge they had developed surrounding OX40 was an
important component in their search, he says.

"We really wanted to capitalize on that and make
sure that
this is a true partnership," says Draetta, "and that's when I think we found
with GSK that the new leadership in immunology—the complete
agreement on how
important it is to work together. You want to work with people that have the
same passion."

T cells, a type of white blood cell or lymphocyte produced
by the thymus, are one of the most important parts of the immune
system,
responsible for targeting sick or infected cells. The antibodies that MD
Anderson and GSK will seek to develop will work by activating OX40 on
the
surface of T cells. OX40 is a secondary or co-stimulatory receptor protein, and
in a recent study by researchers at the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy
at Memorial Sloan-
Kettering Cancer Center, the molecule was found to cause CD4+
T cells, which coordinate the immune system's attack, to heighten their immune
attack on cancerous cells. The protein, once activated, also blocks suppressors
of immune response.

"T cell recognition of a tumor antigen is not enough to
activate the T cells against cancer cells, they need a secondary signal to tell
them 'that
antigen you have is a bad thing, you have to attack,'" said
Liu, chief scientific officer and vice president of the Baylor Research
Institute of the Baylor Health Care
System in Dallas, in a statement.

Liu and colleagues generated and screened hundreds of
antibodies in
their search for any that could activate OX40 by mimicking OX40L,
its natural activator, and came up with a handful of agonists which they tested
in
mice and then altered for human use. If preclinical drug development under
the agreement is successful, the antibodies will move on to clinical trials.

Draetta says they expect to see the targeting of OX40 be
effective in multiple cancer types, adding that
he does not expect OX40 to be
"a one-off, I think that there's going to be other potential products coming
from our team."

Eric Devroe, Ph.D., executive director of strategic
alliances at MD Anderson, says he expects the market for cancer
immunotherapy
to continue to grow.

"I think there's a tremendous interest across the board, be
it in clinicians getting access to some of the agents under development, big
pharma, as you've seen with this GSK deal…as well as venture
capitalists
interested in putting forth new companies around these themes of thinking in a
very big way," says Devroe.